“This budget represents a cut of hundreds of millions of pounds to our NHS over the coming three years. That is completely unacceptable and puts frontline services at risk. The NHS has already faced cuts of £435 million this year and it has now been confirmed there is much more to come.

The Minister’s hypocritical claims of protecting health fly in the face of Labour-Plaid’s weeks of sustained criticism of the Welsh Conservative pledge to safeguard the health budget.

We will continue to lobby the Assembly Government to protect the NHS from Labour-Plaid cuts. The Welsh Assembly Government has received a fair settlement from Westminster, with cuts of less than two per cent a year and lower than they themselves were planning for.

It is now time for Labour-Plaid to be judged on their harmful plans for the future of our Health Service.”

Labour will, of course, seek to blame Osborne and Cameron for these cuts and Tories are anxious about a 'severed legs' strategy where Labour make headline-grabbing cuts wherever they have power, hoping to inflict maximum damage on the Coalition in Westminster, while Tory councils, for example, make responsible cuts.